thinktoomuch.net

In some ways similar to selection bias, confirmation bias is the tendency for people to favour information that agrees with their preconceptions or beliefs, regardless of whether it is actually true. Confirmation bias is an example of a cognitive bias, a human trait, whereas selection bias is typically a methodological error in a scientific study. [...]

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There are many mistakes one can make when setting up a scientific study. Awareness of such mistakes and biases is very important so that we can avoid drawing false conclusions from bad data. Today I’m briefly introducing selection bias.

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Today I again stumbled on an old article I bookmarked/miniblogged on November 6, 2008 (two days after Obama won the election). Titled The American void, Simon Critchley wrote about the role of belief and faith in Obama’s worldview, and the nature of his conversion to Christianity. It was the musings on the “anthropologist’s distance” that [...]

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